Ohio businesses falling short

On the second anniversary of the August 14, 2003 Blackout that cost Ohio manufacturers more than $1 billion, nearly one-third of companies in the state of Ohio still lack business continuity plans and 40 percent say that such planning is not a priority.

The report issued by AT&T and the International Association of Emergency Managers, shows that the Ohio business community still has a long way to go before it reaches the level of preparedness of other large states, such as New Jersey and Florida.

With only 60 percent of Ohio companies seeing business continuity planning as a priority, the level of awareness about the crippling effects that even a short interruption of business processes can cause is rather low. This is surprising, as the August 2003 blackout hit many companies hard, costing more than 12,000 Ohio manufacturers an average cost of $80,000 a piece. Some of the larger companies reported costs of $1 million an hour and about a quarter of businesses reported losses of $50,000 per hour of downtime. Overall, 16 percent of the companies surveyed say they have suffered from a disaster, with 63 percent of those having been affected financially.

"With two thirds of the companies that have suffered through a disaster putting measures into place to prevent this from happening again, it appears that many businesses had to learn the hard way," said AT&T regional vice president, Jerry Gerami.

It is normally recommended that business continuity plans should be updated and tested every six months to reflect the actual situation of the company. In the state of Ohio, only 38 percent of businesses have updated and just 26 percent have tested their plans within this critical timeframe. An even more dramatic statistic: a full 28 percent of the Ohio companies surveyed have never tested their plans, putting them at risk if the well-meant plan doesn't work as intended.

Today, with more and more data being stored on networks, the threat of digital disasters is often higher than that of natural ones. A breakdown of essential infrastructures can easily lead to the collapse of vital business processes - often with disastrous consequences for the company. Given the

destructive force of today's cyber attacks, it is surprising that almost three out of ten (27 percent) of Ohio companies do not include cyber security in their overall continuity planning. Only 19 percent of the companies surveyed see cyber security as a "top concern," with 8 percent viewing cyber security as not a concern at all.

www.att.com

•Date: 16th August 2005 • Region: US• Type: Article •Topic: BC statistics
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